Commercial article printing typically occurs during the production of the article. For example, ball skins are printed with patterns or logos prior to the ball being completed and inflated. Consequently, retail locations in regions where potential product customers support multiple professional or collegiate teams need to keep an inventory of products bearing the logos of various teams followed in that area. Ordering the correct number of products for each different logo to maintain sufficient inventory can be problematic and expensive.
One way to address these issues in non-production outlets would be to keep unprinted versions of the products and print the patterns or logos on them at the distribution site, i.e., on-demand. Printers known as direct-to-object (DTO) printers have been developed for printing on individual objects. However, these DTO printers typically employ printing techniques similar to two-dimensional (2D) flatbed printers, i.e., printheads that traverse the width of a print media close to the surface of the print media. Due to the proximity of the traversing printheads, these printers are limited to printing on surfaces that are relatively flat, i.e., with no protrusions. Therefore, adapting known printing techniques, such as 2D media printing technology, to apply image content onto three-dimensional objects with non-uniform surfaces is difficult. The difficulties are especially compounded when the objects are non-uniform in diameter, or contain large protrusions, e.g., the satellite rings or lip for attaching a lid on a bucket.
Thus, a DTO printer to print on three-dimensional, e.g., frustoconical objects, having a non-uniform surface is needed. The present disclosure addresses a system and method printing high quality images on three-dimensional objects, e.g., on a frustoconical surface such as a bucket, such that image integrity is maintained.